The Office of Labor Standards may grant a partial or total waiver of these requirements, pursuant to the following:
(1) Any Employer which contends that it is unable to pay all or part of the new wage standard must provide a detailed explanation in writing to the City.
(2) The explanation must set forth the reasons for an Employer's inability to comply with the provisions of this Chapter, including a complete cost accounting for the proposed work to be performed with any City funding or assistance that gives rise to coverage under this Chapter, including wages and benefits to be paid all employees, as well as an itemization of the wage and benefits paid to the five highest paid individuals employed by the employer.
(3) The employer must also demonstrate that the waiver will further the interests of the City in creating training positions which will enable employees to advance into permanent jobs paying the new wage standard or better and will not be used to replace or displace existing positions or employees or to lower the wages of current employees.
(4) The City may grant a waiver only upon a finding and determination that the employer has demonstrated economic hardship and that waiver will further the interests of the City in providing training positions which will enable employees to advance into permanent jobs paying the new wage standard or better.
(5) However, no waiver will be granted if the effect of the waiver is to replace or displace existing positions or employees or to lower the wages of current employees.
(6) Waivers from the Chapter are disfavored and will be granted only where the balance of competing interests weighs clearly in favor of granting the waiver.
(7) If waivers are to be granted, partial waivers are favored over blanket waivers. Moreover, any waiver shall be granted for no more than one year. At the end of the year, the employer may reapply for a new waiver which may be granted subject to the same criteria for granting the initial waiver.
(a) The City may grant the waiver. Within five days of doing so, the City shall submit to the Living Wage and Benefits Review Committee established pursuant to Section 17-1311 a copy of the waiver and an explanation of the grounds for issuing it.
(b) At any time after a waiver has been granted, the Living Wage and Benefits Review Committee or Council, by resolution adopted following a public hearing at which the employer receives an opportunity to appear and testify, may determine that the grounds for continuing the waiver do not exist. If the Committee or Council so determines, the waiver shall expire on the expiration date specified in the resolution. A copy of the adopted resolution shall be forwarded to the Finance Director, or such other officer or agency as the Mayor shall designate, who shall notify the employer by certified mail that the waiver shall terminate on the specified date.
(9) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section to the contrary, but subject to subsection (8), the City reserves the right to waive the requirements of this Chapter upon a finding and determination that a waiver is in the best interests of the City. 144
(10) All of the provisions of this Chapter, or any part hereof, may be waived by a bona fide collective bargaining agreement, except an agreement governed by the Railway Labor Act. 145
Notes
| 143 | Added, Bill No. 130744-A (approved March 4, 2014). Section 2 of Bill No. 130744-A provides: "This Ordinance shall take effect upon approval by the voters of the amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter proposed in Resolution No. 130544." The voters approved that amendment in an election held May 20, 2014. |
| 144 | |
| 145 |